Letters

I enjoyed Catherine Fischer's article about tampons "Are Sanitary Napkins Truly Sanitary?" (AGENDA, Dec. 1990) and found particularly useful her suggestions of alternative means of stopping menstrual flow. But I think the article could have gone further. Just as disposable tampons and napkins available commercially contribute needlessly to our environmental waste problems, so do other household products. I refer specifically to toilet paper. American s waste millions of tons of paper each year for the luxury of cleaning themselves with paper, while alternatives that are more environmentally sound - not to mention cleaner - exist. Consider that in most of the world a bare hand and a bucket of water do the job perfectly well, with no waste of paper. Like most steps toward a more ecologically aware world, this one requires overcoming some cultural biases. But anyone who's truly committed should be only too glad to grin and "bare" it.